and the Winners Are!

Ok as promised… But let me first say Thank YOU for reading my blog and my small adventures to South Africaat  or the daily bits about home and my generally not so exciting life! I enjoy reading your input, encouragement or views! I made a list of names from those that commented on my blog, chopped it up and had my friends at bee draw 4 names!!! So what are the prizes- A yard of Shwe Shwe (traditional African cotton very stiff from the dyes), a wool wallet from Lesotho, a Zulu basket, a carved wood bracelet, a carved wooden elephant or a hand beaded tulle food/bowl cover. I put each item in a bag and labeled them from 1-6 and emailed or called each in order of the names drawn and had them choose a number…

The First name drawn was Angela- owner of the blog- My Three Sons and she picked #4

The Second drawn was Sue V- she doesn’t have a blog, but she is a ‘big’ time blog reader, picked #3

The Third was Karen S. that has a blog at  A Cre8tive Kick in the Pants picked #1

The Fourth was Sandy B. - she doesn’t have a blog either, but she does read mine! picked #6.

So nobody knows yet which of the above mentioned item is in the bag, and they won’t know until the mail arrives or we meet in person…. Next week!!!

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Now on to more mundane things… My refrigerator has been repaired, but all the stuff that says ‘refrigerate after opening’ had to be tossed out, so I have a very empty fridge. I don’t know when it quit cooling, but I had the repairman take a temperature reading, and it was well above 40, so it was the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. So just about the only thing I didn’t toss was the ketchup and pickled things, (pickles and capers) and mustards. My recycle bin is over flowing… good thing it’s garbage day.


On a quilty note, I am in an exchange, where we are making 4” x 4” Crazy Quilts on Peltex. The only other rule is that they have to be embellished. These are for an online Yahoo group called the “Sparkly Chickens”. This is our 3rd exchange. The first was 12” blocks with a chicken/rooster on it and sparkly, (the last chicken arrived yesterday. She was a replacement for one that got lost in the mail). The second was receivers choice either Fall or Halloween 8” blocks, and again sparkly. We’ve had so much fun. Anyway I have had all my little gems pieced, even took them with me to South Africa… thinking I might start to embellish them while there- HA, yeah right! I did try but the inspiration just wasn’t there. So the last few nights I have spent working on them, doing the embroidery. I only have a few more to embroider, and then the fun part- adding some beads!!!

One of my friends was reading Ami Simms Blog- It appears that Ami Simms is planning to spend some time in Shipshewana Indiana, and has invited anyone that can get there to join her for some shopping and lunch in Amish country. So unless the weather is just too bad… there’s a road trip on Friday!

I have a need to do some fabric shopping. I have become a ‘Great Aunt’ again; my sisters’ oldest child has produced a baby girl. So I need to pick up the supplies for that. I have an idea of what I want to do… but maybe I will be inspired by a fabric!!! There is Yoders Department Store and Lollies over there… and maybe one or two more on the way home… Ericas in South Bend IN and another little shop in Crown Point IN, but additional stops will depend on the weather… We are supposed to get a bit of snow, and since the Weather folks are so good at predicting accumulations, (NOT- never mind the WHEN of a storm).

And, I picked up the Black White Bright quilt from the quilter today. I wanted to quilt it myself, but I am too lazy to wrestle something that big through a domestic machine, so I sent it out. Julie of Simply Divine Quilting Co. is an award winning longarm quilter in this area and she did a marvelous job, which I will show everyone just as soon as I get the binding on!!! Hopefully, this weekend!!!

and as always More Later!